PayU India targets revenue of $100 million by the end of this fiscal year

PayU India reported revenue of about $61 million for the financial year ended March 31, 2017 according to filings submitted by the companyBiswarup Gooptu | ET Bureau | May 29, 2017, 09:01 IST

PayU India, the domestic arm of the Naspers-owned payment service provider, is targeting revenue of $100 million by the end of this fiscal year, which, if achieved, will make the country the largest market for the fintech company.

PayU India, which has about 250,000 merchants transacting on its platform, reported revenue of about $61 million for the financial year ended March 31, 2017 according to filings submitted by the company.

“In India, we are doing about Rs 6,000 crore on a monthly basis... Almost 80% of our revenue will come from our core payment business. At $100 million, India becomes the single biggest market for PayU globally,“ Amrish Rau, chief executive of PayU India, told ET.

The company, which competes with the likes of Alibaba Group and SoftBank-backed Paytm, MobiKwik and Snapdeal-owned FreeCharge, has been in India for about five years, but burst into prominence after it acquired home-grown fintech venture Citrus Pay for about $130 million in September 2016.

“At the time of the acquisition, PayU India and Citrus Pay were doing transactions of about Rs 3,300 crore cumulatively. In the past eight months, we've seen growth of 80%,“ Rau said.

Driven by the Central government's demonetisation of highvalue banknotes in November last year, India's payments sector has seen significant growth over the past six months.

According to an industry report, Digital Payments 2020, released by Google and the Boston Consulting Group last year, India's digital payments industry was anticipated to touch $500 billion by 2020, contributing about 15% to the country's GDP.

PayU India, a 100% subsidiary of PayU, which, in turn, makes up the epayments division of South African media and technology conglomerate Naspers, is broadly targeting three areas of growth -faster payments, credit, and digital or app based banks, according to Rau.

“We are saying that the next wave in India will be around all the alternate payment modes, money moving between two individuals.Credit is completely broken here, so, how do you solve that? How do you start getting into the banking related experience?“ Rau said.

According to him, PayU has spent about $250 million over the past five years in Asia's third-largest economy, but may consider increasing that number as it scouts for investment and acquisition opportunities to fuel growth.

Apart from its acquisition of Citrus Pay, PayU made strategic investments in consumer lending app ZestMoney in February, and this month, its parent, PayU, pumped in $120 million in German alternative lending startup Kreditech.